


Whumptober 2019

by headinthecloudsgirl



Category: Chicago Fire
Genre: Allergies, Broken Bones, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Vomiting, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2020-12-16 22:29:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 31
Words: 16,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21043835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/headinthecloudsgirl/pseuds/headinthecloudsgirl
Summary: Fills for the whumptober 2k19 \o/Basically my perfect justification for hurting Casey :D





	1. Shaky Hands

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I finally gave in..  
Never wanted to do this, but look at me now :)  
I'm not too sure if I will fill all of the prompts, but as long as the little guy in my stomach decides to stay in there, I'll spend my time writing, I guess :D
> 
> Be warned: These chapters are not beta-read, I just write what's in my head and that's it. No tinkering. Otherwise, I'd never be done.

“Damn, that was a close call, huh?” Severide said and threw himself into the chair next to Casey.  
The fire they had just come back from had indeed been one of the tougher calls they had had the last couple of shifts.  
“Yeah. Thought we wouldn’t make it out in time,” Casey replied with a sigh and scrubbed a hand over his face.  
Severide tracked the movement with his eyes and then took a closer look at his friend.  
“Hey, Case, you okay?”  
He hadn’t really noticed before, but Casey was pale and the sweat on his forehead couldn’t still be from the fire at least forty-five minutes ago. Never mind that his hands were shaking.  
“Hm? Oh, yeah, I’m good,” Casey replied and put on the fake smile that even the Candidates could see right through.  
“Right. Adrenaline crash?” Kelly reached out and took Matt’s wrist, finding his pulse immediately. “Your heart’s racing.”  
Casey pulled back his wrist, held it for a moment with his other hand and then put his head in his hands, elbows propped up on his knees.  
“Matt?” Kelly had one hand on his friend’s shoulder now, as much a reassurance to Casey as to himself. He was getting worried now.  
“I don’t know. I feel dizzy,” Matt mumbled and Kelly felt him take a deep breath again. He had no doubt that Matt was trying to breathe the dizziness away. Kelly looked up from Matt’s hunched back and twisted around to see of he could see Brett somewhere. This didn’t seem like a situation that would just resolve itself.  
“You’ll be all right. Just keep breathing like that,” Severide said and finally saw Brett walking through the doors. He waved at her, catching her eye and nodded in Casey’s direction. He watched Brett taking in Matt’s posture before she mouthed to him that she was going to get the bag from Ambo and rushed back out of the door again.  
Thank God for a Paramedic who understood her job, no questions asked.  
“Talk to me, Matt.”  
Kelly crouched down in front of his friend again, one hand still on his shoulder, the other now resting on his knee.  
Matt shook his head slightly and looked at Kelly though his fingers.  
“I just feel… shaky. I don’t know. Started at the end of the call.”  
Kelly frowned.  
“Have you had anything to eat yet?”  
He had the feeling that Matt had once again apparently forgotten that he was human.  
Just as Matt shook his head, Brett came back in and crouched down next to the pair of them.  
“What happened?”  
“I think this moron somehow forgot to eat like a normal human being and decided it was a good idea to go out on a call on an empty stomach,” Kelly grunted and shook his head.  
“Oh. Right. Casey, I’ll need to check you blood sugar, all right?” Brett said and didn’t even wait for an answer before she pressed the plunger and squeezed a drop of blood out of his finger.  
“When’s the last time you ate something?” she asked while waiting for the result.  
Severide watched Matt glace up at him. He just raised an eyebrow at him.  
“Last night? I didn’t have the time this morning to get something and when I got here, we were bombarded with calls,” Matt said.  
“Do I have to be the responsible one now?” Kelly mumbled and shook his head.  
Before he could work himself up to tear Matt a new one, Brett showed them the number on the glucose meter.  
“Whenever that last meal was, it’s been too long,” she pulled her gloves off and rummaged around the bag. “Your blood sugar level’s on the low side, low enough to make you dizzy. Here.”  
Brett gave Matt a couple of glucose tablets. “I’ll spare you the glucose gel, but I want you to eat these. You should feel better in a couple of minutes, all right?”  
She patted his shoulder before turning around to face Severide.  
“I’ll check his level again in ten minutes, okay? See, if you can get him to drink a juice or something.”  
Kelly smiled at her and briefly touched her arm, “Thanks, Brett.”  
She just nodded and then left the two of them – Kelly shaking his head at Matt who was nibbling at one of the glucose tablets.  
“I should move back in with you,” Kelly said and sat back down next to Casey.  
“Huh?”  
“Be the breakfast-police, you know?” Severide smirked.  
Matt just rolled his eyes at him.


	2. Explosion

“It’s gonna blow!”  
Herrmann’s shout brought back memories of the fire that killed Otis.   
The same voice, the same words. Just with a better outcome this time – Casey hoped.   
Boden’s voice crackled through their radios, “Truck 81, Squad 3, pull back, now!”  
Casey heard Severide reply that they were on their way out and breathed a sigh of relief. They were already safe, then.  
“Herrmann, I’ll take over. You go and make sure that all of Truck’s outside. I’ll be out as soon as you’re safe,” Casey shouted over the noise of the fire and took the hose out of Herrmann’s hands. Seeing the doubt in his friend’s eyes, he added, “That’s an order!”  
Herrmann huffed at him before briefly touching his shoulder.  
“Better be quick, Captain!”  
Casey just nodded and put his mind back on the task at hand – trying to keep the gas tank from exploding right then and there. Herrmann had been right, of course he had, the tank was going to blow up and they didn’t have a lot of time left. The relieve valve was doing its best to keep the pressure inside the tank at a tolerable level but had no choice against the raging fire.   
Casey wasn’t exactly sure how long he stood there, hose trained on the gas tank and just hoping it wouldn’t blow as long as he was literally ten feet away from it, before he finally heard Herrmann’s voice over his radio.  
“Everyone’s out, Casey! Get the hell out of there!”  
Well, he didn’t need to be told twice.   
They could always replace the hose, but filling a Captain’s position would surely be a pain in Boden’s butt.   
Matt dropped the hose to the ground, turned and all but ran towards the exit he knew to be behind him, a couple of feet to the left. Debris which had fallen from the ceiling made his progress slower than he would have liked, but at least he didn’t have to climb over any obstacles.  
Casey could already see the speck of light that had to be the door he had come through. Just a few more feet and he would be safe.   
Just as that thought crossed his mind, he could feel the air pressure around him change, pushing him off his feet, heat washing over his body as he fell on the ground. 

Severide had been staring at the door a couple of feet in front of him for the last few minutes. While it was typical for Casey to play the hero (well, be the hero), it didn’t mean that Kelly agreed with his actions. Losing Otis had been tough on all of them and this fire felt so much like that bad one that Severide’s heart pounded in his chest.   
Herrmann had given Casey the call to get out a few seconds ago and Kelly knew that he would be out any moment now. He had to. No way he was losing another friend that day.   
Just as he was able to make out a silhouette moving towards the door, the gas tank finally exploded. A ball of fire, accompanied by enormous heat, made its way out of the door and caused them all to take a step back and crouch down.   
“Shit!”  
Kelly cursed, pulled his hat of and fastened his mask. Without thinking twice, let alone listening to Boden’s voice in his ear, he made his way into the warehouse which was still burning brightly.   
“Casey! Call out!”  
He knew that his friend couldn’t be far from the door. He knew he had seen him just moments before the explosion. Kelly stood still for a second and tried to make out the PASS alarm that should already be sounding if Casey hadn’t moved since falling. He heard nothing, though. That had to be a good sign.   
“Casey!”  
Finally, he saw something moving to his left. “Casey, talk to me!”  
He rushed to the firefighter’s side, who was struggling to push himself up his knees and hands.  
“Matt!”  
Matt’s head finally turned and he looked at Kelly.   
“I’m fine,” he panted, barely audible over the flames.  
“Yeah, right,” Kelly mumbled and made short process.   
He grabbed Matt under one arm, turned him around so that he was on his butt und proceeded to drag him backwards out of the building.   
Casey could continue pretending to be fine once they were outside of the building.   
“I got Casey, we’re coming out, Chief,” Kelly grunted and kept dragging Matt across the floor.   
Boden was going to be pissed, he knew it. If he didn’t send anyone else in to back him up, he probably deemed the building ready to collapse any moment.   
Severide couldn’t care less at the moment, though. He had found Casey, who seemed relatively okay, and that was all that mattered. He was sure that Boden would feel the same way once he got over the fact that Kelly acted without thinking first.   
Two more steps and then he was outside, dragging Matt the last few feet until he reached Herrmann, who was already crouching down to support Casey. Kelly propped Matt up against Herrmann and took both his and Matt’s masks off.   
“Talk to me,” Boden was already standing right next to them, one hand on his radio, the other on his hip.  
“I’m fine,” Casey said and scrubbed a hand over his face.  
Boden just raised an eyebrow hat him and nodded to Brett and Foster who then started making their way over to them.   
“I may have twisted my knee when I fell,” Matt added and grimaced when he tried to take his weight off of Herrmann.  
“Just stay like that. Anything else?” Kelly asked, one hand still on his friend’s shoulder. That had been to close a call.  
“Maybe a couple of burns, but nothing serious,” Casey said and added, “Really.”   
Kelly looked him deep in the eyes and finally determined that Matt was probably telling the truth.   
“Let’s get that knee checked at Med, huh?” Brett said and nodded at Matt. “And maybe see where those burns are.”  
“Right.”  
Severide stood up and held one hand out to Casey. “C’mon, I’ll help you up. Don’t put any weight on that knee.”  
Casey smiled at him and grabbed his hand. “Thanks.”  
In a matter of seconds, Casey was on his feet – well, foot – and Kelly next to him, propping him up on his injured side. “All right?”  
“Yeah,” Casey grunted and hobbled to the gurney Foster was holding steady. She had already collapsed it to its lowest level so that Matt just had to sit down.  
“Try and keep that leg straight, okay? Just sit down and we’ll turn you,” Brett said and turned to Severide. “Can you take his weight?”  
Kelly nodded and moved to stand in front of Casey, holding him at both elbows. “I’ve got you, Case.”  
Casey slowly sat down, one leg still straight in front of him, his movement controlled by the counterweight Kelly was providing. Once he was fully seated, Kelly grabbed both of his ankles and carefully lifted them up onto the stretcher.  
“Perfect,” Brett smiled. “We should hire you as a Paramedic, Severide.”  
“Nah,” Kelly laughed and shook his head. “I hate being puked on.”  
“Touché. You gonna ride along?”  
Severide glanced over at Boden, who gave him a short nod.  
“Yeah.”


	3. Delirium

Everything hurt.  
Matt didn’t remember ever feeling his sick in his life if he was honest with himself. He had been completely fine yesterday, even this morning he had felt okay.   
Matt had almost been on his way to the fire house, when the flu suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks. He went from feeling okay to incredibly ill within two hours. Now, he was lying on his sofa, buried under every blanket he found but still shivering. He’d tried watching TV at first but had stopped after one episode of one drama show or another because his head hurt too much. If he could just fall asleep. That would be perfect right about now.

Brett had been worried when Matt had called in sick that morning. The flu was making its way through the fire house, knocking down one fire fighter after the other. Seemed like their flu shots for this year didn’t really work.   
Around midday, she had texted Casey, asking how he was doing and if there was anything he needed. He still lived with Severide but knowing that man, they probably didn’t have any chicken noodle soup at home – or any meds.   
Brett finally got a reply almost two hours later. Her hope that Casey had just been sleeping the flu off and maybe felt a little better was gone as soon as she read his message.  
Still frowning at the text, she quickly made her way over the Squad’s table and had Severide’s attention almost immediately.  
“I think we need to check on Matt,” she said and showed him the text.  
I’m okay. Got a headache, but I’ll be fine.   
Andy’s here and keeps me company.”  
“Andy’s the fire fighter you lost, isn’t he?” Brett asked just be make sure.   
“Yeah. Shit,” Kelly stood up from his chair and pointed at Capp. “You’re acting Lieutenant. Tell Boden what’s going on.”  
Brett was already on her way to the Ambulance. “We’re taking the Ambo. I’ve got the feeling we’re going to need it.”  
“Yeah, me too.”


	4. Human Shield

“Jesus Christ, Casey!”   
Kelly still couldn’t believe what had happened just a few moments ago.  
He was kneeling next to Casey, one hand steadily applying pressure to the knife wound in his friend’s shoulder.   
“Jesus.”  
“You can still call me Matt, you know,” Casey mumbled and grimaced.  
“Nuh-uh. Don’t even try to be funny, you hear me,” Kelly grunted and put more pressure on the wound. Matt winced again.  
“Serves you right.”  
“You don’t mean that.”  
Kelly shook his head and then looked up, past the bystanders, and tried to make out if he finally saw Paramedics.   
“Maybe not. But really, Casey, on our day off? Isn’t it enough to run into burning buildings? Do you have to pretend you’re a human shield now?”  
Matt closed his eyes for a second before looking intently in Severide’s eyes.  
“Don’t tell me you weren’t about a second from doing the same. We both knew that he was going to attack the girl.”  
Kelly shook his head again and sighed. He knew that Matt was right. Didn’t make the situation any better, though.   
“Maybe.”  
Matt snorted. “Yeah, right.”  
He tried to push himself up on his elbows but was stopped before he could even get his back off the ground.   
“Would you stop moving?”  
“It’s just a flesh wound. You know it’s not that bad,” Matt said and glanced down at his shoulder where Kelly’s hand had turned red from the blood slowly making its way down his shirt.   
“That’s what that knight said. He was wrong.”  
That got a laugh out of Casey. “Monty Python? Really?”


	5. Gunpoint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, no.  
I struggled with this one - badly.  
Still, I won't filter out the bad ones, they belong to this challenge as much as the better ones :)

This wasn’t the first time that he was being held at gunpoint – and honestly, it probably wouldn’t be the last either. He was just too nosey.  
One would think that the experience would lessen the pounding of his heart but Kelly couldn’t say he was less nervous than the first time it happened.  
How did he get into situations like this?  
Sometimes just dumb luck, sometimes he was too drunk to care and sometimes – like today – he had honestly just wanted to protect a grandpa being robbed in the middle of the night in his small store.  
What had Kelly been doing in the middle of the night in said store? Well, buying booze, to be frank but that didn’t matter now.  
He just had to get the guy with the nervous trigger finger out of the shop and he would call it a day. No beer for him and Matt tonight, it seemed.  
“Nothing’s happened yet, just go, kid,” Kelly said, hands still raised in the air, one eye trained on the kid, the other on the old man behind the counter. It would just be perfect if the guy had a heart attack from stress or something.  
Instead of answering, the kid just shook his head and mumbled to himself. Even if Kelly hated himself for being prejudiced, he probably was in need of a fix and decided to rob a store to get the money he needed.  
“Kid. Walk away,” he tried again, his tone lower than before, more demanding. Maybe that would get through to him.  
“Stop talking to me!”  
That outburst wasn’t really what Kelly had been expecting.  
“All right. Okay. This is your show,” Kelly said and inched closer to the kid.  
This was taking too damn long. And the kid didn’t really pose a threat, to be honest. He still had the safety on, for that matter.  
The next time the kid was mumbling to himself, looking out of the front of the store rather than looking at Kelly, he made three quick steps forward, elbowed the kid in the stomach while twisting the hand holding the gun at the same time.  
A few seconds later and he had the gun in his hand.  
“So much for my day off.”


	6. Dragged Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's just accept comic science for this one, all right? :)

“Shit!” Severide cursed and looked around to somehow fix this situation. It wasn’t often that he panicked, but this time was definitely one of the few.  
“Secure that chain!” he shouted at nobody in particular but hoped that someone would have a brilliant idea on just how to do that. If he was honest with himself, he knew they didn’t have enough time. “Capp, get me the scuba gear! Now!”  
Kelly wasn’t really sure how the call had shifted from normal day-to-day work to the train wreck it was right now. They had been called to an accident near the river, one car completely totalled. The owner had called a friend to try and tow the damaged car, wanting to save a couple of bucks on the tow truck. That didn’t work out, though. The two cars had been standing a couple of feet from the river, towline stretched between them. Long story short, Truck and Engine had just arrived on scene and taken a look of how to approach the situation best, when the strain on the chain connecting the two cars became to strong. The rusty old thing snapped, somehow wound its way around Casey’s right ankle and started to drag him towards the water. Apparently, the driver hadn’t thought about activating the parking brake. And because they had only been on scene for maybe two minutes, neither had Squad or Truck. Now Casey was steadily being dragged closer to the water, the chain strung so tight that he had no chance to unwinding it from his foot.  
Severide knew that once the car hit the water, the chain would go slack until the car had filled and sunken completely; it would be easy to untangle Casey once that happened. That also meant, however, that Casey had to go into the river first.   
There was maybe one foot of dry land left before the car would fall into the river. It was a matter of seconds now.  
Severide locked eyes with Casey. “Hold on, Case, I’m coming for you.”  
Casey nodded, determination and pure trust written all over his face. Then he was pulled backwards into the water. 

Matt knew that Kelly would come after him as soon as he had the scuba mask and oxygen tank secured, he wouldn’t take the time to put on the suit or anything else.  
Still, it was a horrible feeling to be pulled backwards into the cold water of the river. Knowing that you maybe had thirty seconds before the car attached to your feet would start dragging you down. As soon as he hit the water, he tried to find his way back to the surface as quickly as possible, not the easiest task if you fell backwards. It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds before he resurfaced and immediately tried to get a grip on the chain around his ankle. Despite his boots, he was pretty sure that he had broken something. The force with which the chain had wrapped around his foot and pulled had been enormous. Making no progress at loosening the chain within the first few seconds of trying, Matt changed his course of action and pulled off his jacket. The weight of it wasn’t helping him staying above the surface. Just as he pulled his arms free, he heard a splash next to him and found himself face to face with Kelly. Thank God.  
“I can’t get a grip on it,” Matt panted.  
Kelly nodded, briefly touched his shoulder and then dove down without wasting another second.  
Matt didn’t know how long Kelly was working on getting him free. Realistically, he knew it couldn’t have been more than maybe twenty seconds, but the weight of the car slowly filling with water and pulling him down made each second stretch into a minute.   
He finally felt his foot being released and had Kelly trading water next to him within a few seconds.  
“You good?”   
Matt debated his answer for a second. He settled for, “I’m not drowning anymore.”  
Kelly frowned at him and then opened the radio in his mask.   
“I got Casey. We’ll need an ambulance, though.”  
Once that message got through, Kelly took a longer look at Matt.  
“Think the chain broke my foot,” better get it out now, Matt thought.  
“Jesus, Case,” Kelly shook his head and opened the radio again.  
“Casey’s probably broken his foot. No way we can get out of the river with a ladder. Position Truck so that you can pull us out.”  
Matt grimaced. “Sorry.”  
“Only you, Matt, only you.”


	7. Isolation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks a lot for the comments so far! :)  
I hope you enjoy this one!
> 
> tw: vomiting (a lot of it, poor Matt)

“Christie, hey. How’s Violet doing?”  
Matt was sitting in his quarters, the paperwork from the last call spread out on the desk in front of him. He loved his job, but all of those reports waiting to be filed were a pain in the ass.   
The call from his sister was a welcome distraction if he was honest. He had picked up Violet from school earlier today, she had been sick during class and hadn’t been able to reach Christie right away. Matt had gladly signed her out and picked her up from school, staying over until they got a hold of Christie. Except for the little while he fostered Heather’s kids and Louie, he never had to deal with sick children and had been surprised, how ill Violet had gotten in a short amount of time.   
His sister at the other end of the phone sighed.  
“Not too well. That’s why I’m calling, actually. There’s an outbreak of norovirus in Violet’s school. So, I took her to the doctor’s and they tested her positive, which means you probably have it as well. Sorry. You wouldn’t have caught it if I had heard my phone,” Christie explained and sighed again.  
Matt rubbed his forehead and shook his head, although his sister couldn’t see it.  
“Don’t worry, Christie. I’m sure I’ll be fine. Thanks for telling me, anyway. Give Violet a hug from me?”  
Matt hung up, picked his pen up again and continued to write his report. He was sure he didn’t catch the virus. 

Six hours into the shift, Matt wasn’t so sure anymore. He had been reading up on the norovirus between the last two calls and it didn’t look too good for him. Apparently, it was enough to be near a person throwing up to catch the virus. Highly contagious, Wikipedia said. Nevertheless, Matt would never go home on a hunch that he might get sick in the next couple of hours. But thanks to his little research session, he now at least knew how to protect others from infection.   
Judging by the way his stomach was feeling, he would need that knowledge rather sooner than later. Not even ten minutes ago, he had been absolutely fine but had still retreated back to his quarters, just to be safe. Now he was sitting at his desk, suddenly clammy all over, nausea twisting his stomach. This was just fantastic. Matt grabbed his trash can, thankfully empty and lined, and didn’t have to wait long. He was certain that he had never in his life been sick with the force he vomited with in that moment. What he was experiencing had to be the definition of projectile vomiting. Barely able to get a breath in, Matt threw up again, cold sweat on his forehead, his hands trembling around the edges of the can.   
“Case?”  
Matt closed his eyes as he heaved for a third time and held up his hand. Hopefully Kelly would get the message to stay where he was.  
He heard the door of his office close and then the shutters being closed. Matt spat, trying to get rid of the foul taste in his mouth and then looked up.  
Kelly was standing next to his bed, hands in his pockets like he wasn’t sure what to do with them.  
“Seems like Violet’s got the norovirus. I picked her up. Guess I picked the virus up as well,” Matt said and swallowed thickly. He was going to be sick again. 

Kelly winced when Matt hung his head back over the trash can. He’d been lucky and never caught the norovirus – apparently his blood type had something to do with it? – but had seen a lot of people fall ill from it.   
He needed a plan of attack, figuratively speaking. He needed to inform the Chief and get Matt home ASAP, before the diarrhoea set in. He needed gloves, disinfectant and a lot of the sick bags from Ambo.   
“Matt? Listen, I’ll get you home, all right, buddy? You gonna be okay for a minute?” Kelly asked and was glad to see Matt nodding. “Just stay here. Lie down if that makes you feel better.”  
Casey nodded again and gave him a thumbs-up. Kelly snorted and then quickly made his way out of Matt’s office, put in a quick stop in the bathroom to wash his hands thoroughly and then beelined for Boden’s office.  
He knocked on the door frame and was rewarded with Boden looking up at him. Something must have shown on his face, as Boden stood up and took his glasses off.  
“What’s wrong, Kelly?”  
Severide took a step into the office.   
“Casey’s sick. He said he probably caught the norovirus from Violet. It’s not pretty, I’ll tell you that. He’s in his quarters, seemed like he knew what was about to happen and didn’t want to contaminate the whole fire house.”  
Boden winced.   
“Take him home, Kelly. I’ll make sure his office gets cleaned,” Boden said and sat down again. “And be sure to not come back here unless you both are one hundred percent healthy, you got me?”  
Kelly nodded, “Message received, Chief. Total isolation until no one’s puking anymore.”  
Boden nodded once at him and then turned back to his paperwork.   
Kelly took a deep breath in. One down, one to go.  
A couple of minutes later, he had flagged down Brett, quickly explained what was going on and was now prepped. She had given him a short recap on how to best help Matt and protect himself, what they had to be on the lookout for. Then she had given him a handful of the sick bags and a trash bag to collect them in. Lastly, she had asked for his car keys, promising to put everything he needed in there so that he could go ahead and get Casey.   
When he got back to Casey’s office, the Lieutenant was lying on his bed, both arms wrapped around his stomach, the trash can sitting nearby.  
“Matt? Let’s get you home, bud,” Kelly said and bridged the space between them with two steps.  
He reached out, both hands gloved, put a sick bag into Matt’s hands and then helped sit him up. You could see how bad the other man was feeling. As soon as Casey was upright, the little colour left in his face was gone, leaving him almost grey.   
“Talk to me, Matt. You okay to move?”  
Casey shook his head and brought the bag to his mouth. Kelly grimaced in sympathy, sat down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. Matt almost flinched away from him.  
“Relax. I’ve got gloves on. Talked to Brett about what I need to careful about. I’ll be fine.”  
It was typical for Matt that he was worrying about others instead of himself.   
Kelly felt his friend’s back relax under his touch for the briefest moment before the muscles contracted and he was retching once again. Kelly just kept his hand where it was, leaning slightly in Casey’s direction so that their shoulders were touching.   
After the second time bringing something up, Matt groaned and got control over his stomach back. Kelly watched him spit several times and then took the bag from him, tying it off and putting it in the trash. He felt sorry for whoever had to clean this, but he didn’t have the time to worry about that now.  
Matt was sitting next to him, still panting and trying to catch his breath. He looked downright miserable.   
“Let’s get you to the car before the next repeat performance, all right?”   
Without further ado, Kelly heaved Matt to his feet, slinging one arm around his shoulders at the same time, steadying his friend. “Tell me if you need to stop.”  
Somehow, they made their way out of the firehouse without having to stop midway through. Kelly bundled Matt into his car, silently thanking Brett for putting a blanket on the passenger seat to protect the upholstery, should anything happen on the way to their apartment. A bag that was definitely not his was on the backseat, surely full of stuff Brett thought they may need during the next couple of hours. Kelly really needed to get her some chocolate or something the next time he saw her.   
“Here.”  
Kelly pressed another sick bag into Matt’s hands, piled another couple in his lap and then opened the trash bag lying between Matt’s feet.   
“All right?” he questioned, pulled the gloves off and threw them into the bag.  
“Yeah,” Matt grunted, both hands holding onto the sick bag for dear life.  
Kelly guessed he should count it was a win that Matt was only sick once during the ten minute ride to their apartment. It could have been a lot worse if he was honest with himself. Matt even managed to not spill anything and he was grateful for that.   
Just before they pulled into the driveway, Matt squirmed, face contorting.  
“Case?”  
Matt squirmed again, one hand reaching for his stomach. One could even imagine a bit of colour flushing his cheeks.  
“Shit, Kelly,” he was properly flushing now. “I need the bathroom.”  
“Hold on.”  
Severide was sure that he had never parked, exited and rounded his car as quickly as he did then. He pulled open the passenger door, Matt’s outstretched hand already waiting for him. Kelly fumbled his way into a new pair of gloves in record time and then pulled Matt out of the car.   
He could feel the sweat soaking through Matt’s shirt, he was drenched by now. They stumbled their way to the door, Casey shaking more and more with each step they took.  
“Kelly.”  
It wasn’t more than a pained grunt by now.  
“I got you, hold on.”  
He somehow dragged Matt into his en-suite bathroom, who was already fumbling with the button on his pants.   
“Out,” Matt panted and Kelly retreated without any complaint.   
“Yell if you need anything, I mean it!” he shouted through the closed door and just heard a symphony of Matt being miserable in return.  
It would be a long couple of hours.


	8. Stab Wound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is short, I know :D  
I would love to expand on a lot of the chapters somewhere down the line, but right now, I need to catch up on prompts - they somehow keep stacking up :)

“Matt, I need you to stay with me, okay?”  
Although he could hear what was being said, it didn’t make that much sense to him. He wasn’t going anywhere, was he?  
“I know it hurts, sorry. Just keep breathing.”  
Was that Sylvie? And what was hurting? Him?  
“Brett! What happened?”  
That sounded like Kelly. What was he doing in his dream about Sylvie?  
“They got the door open but the guy was standing right there. Stabbed Casey with a kitchen knife.”  
Stabbed?  
“How bad?”  
“Not good. Help me with the stretcher?”  
He was moving, why was he moving? This was a really weird dream.  
“Matt, buddy, you’re gonna be all right.”  
That felt like a hand on his shoulder. What the hell was going on?  
“He’s losing too much blood. Step on it, Foster!”  
Now that he heard it, he did feel kind of dizzy. Once again: what the hell was going on?  
Suddenly, he felt an enormous amount of pressure on his stomach and groaned. This didn’t feel like a dream.  
“I know, I know. Severide, put pressure on this. I’ll get him some morphine.”  
The pressure shifted and suddenly it was even worse than before. It felt like Matt snapped awake. Pain. He was in pain.   
He moaned and tried to squirm away.   
“Matt?”  
Finally, his body seemed to belong to him again. He was no longer just a bystander experiencing this from an almost outside point of view.  
“Sev?”  
“Listen, you’ll be fine. Brett’s giving you something for the pain right now.”  
He felt something cold creeping up his elbow and realised that it had to be the morphine they’d been talking about. Matt didn’t have to wait long to feel its effects.  
“Better?”  
He hummed in response and closed his eyes again.  
“Just relay, Matt. We’ve got you.”


	9. Shackled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shackled can be seen as a synonym for tied/ held down, right? :)

When Matt came out of the building, covered in white powder, Severide knew that this was going to be one of those days.   
“Casey?”   
He took a couple of steps towards him, grabbing a bottle of water on the way over.  
Matt took off his helmet and blindly reached for the water Kelly was holding. He uncapped it, tipped his head sideways and tried to let the water wash away whatever had gotten onto his face.   
“He threw this open bag of stuff into my face. Don’t know what it is,” Matt said once the water bottle was empty.   
“I’m pretty sure it’s some kind of drug, they were all high. Most of them violent.”  
Kelly closed his eyes for a second and suppressed a sigh. Only Matthew Casey could get himself drugged on a call to a suspected fire.   
Before he could say anything, Herrmann walked out of the building, holding a teenager at the back of his shirt, more or less dragging him outside.  
“Relax, dude, it’s just Flakka!” The kid shouted at Herrmann, trying to twist out of the fireman’s grip.   
“Just shut up,” Herrmann replied and kept dragging him off in the direction of Boden’s car.   
Flakka. That rang a bell somewhere deep in Kelly’s mind. Wasn’t that this new zombie drug?  
“How’re you doing, Case?”  
Severide turned his head towards Matt and grabbed his friend’s hands immediately. Matt was doing his best to scratch the skin of off his arms.   
“Matt! Hey!”  
Casey didn’t really respond, jerking his arms, trying to free them from Kelly’s grip. Presumably to keep hurting himself.  
Kelly shifted his stance so that he could sling one arm around Casey to pin down his arms and had the other hand free to reach for his radio.  
“Chief, Casey’s been drugged by those morons. I could use another hand.”  
He saw Boden’s head snap towards them. He took in the situation for maybe half a second before making his way over to them. “Ambo 61, we need your assistance.” Boden’s voice crackled through their radios.   
Great, medical help. They could use that.  
“Hey, Matt. Calm down.”  
It didn’t really seem like Matt was hearing what he was saying, though.   
He was still struggling against Kelly’s chest, his fingers clawing at his pants. Severide could actually feel Matt’s heart beating rapidly.   
Brett, Foster and Boden got to them almost at the same time. Boden took hold of Casey’s hands, trying to limit his motions even further.   
“Casey!”  
Even the stern voice of this Chief didn’t snap Matt out of his drugged haze.  
Brett was already feeling for Matt’s pulse, concern wrinkling her forehead.  
“What was he dosed with?”  
“Came out of the building covered in white powder. We washed it off with some water, but I have no idea how long it was on him – or how much he inhaled. The guy Herrmann got out said it was Flakka,” Kelly answered and tightened his grip around Casey. He was struggling with all he had, it seemed. And Matt was strong.  
Foster and Brett exchanged a look.  
“Flakka?” Boden asked, still holding Matt’s hands, shushing him from time to time. Not that it helped.  
“The kids call it zombie drug. It can make you extremely aggressive – towards others or yourself,” Foster explained. “We need to let it run its course, but not knowing how much Casey’s taken in, I’d rather get him to Med. It doesn’t take much to overdose.”  
Boden just nodded at them.   
Kelly hated to say it, but he guessed they all had it on their minds. “Do you have something to fixate him with?”  
Brett winced but nodded. “Yeah. I hate to admit it, but I think it’s necessary. He already scratched his arms bloody.”  
It took the two Paramedics, Boden and Kelly to manoeuvre Casey onto the stretcher and tie his arms and legs down.   
Naturally, Matt wasn’t a fan.  
“Matt, you’re fine. I know it doesn’t feel like it, but I promise you, we won’t hurt you,” Brett tried to calm him down.   
Kelly still doubted that Matt even registered what she way saying.  
Still, he repeated the same thing. “You’ll be fine, buddy.”


	10. Unconscious

If Matt was honest with himself, he knew that it had been coming. He hadn’t had enough sleep the last couple of days and was literally running on fumes – and adrenaline. Shoving down protein bars and coffee after coffee in between calls had kept him on his feet so far, but it wasn’t going to last forever.   
They were just starting to get all their stuff together, empty the last of their hoses and collect whatever tool had found its way out of Truck, Engine or Squad, when Matt was beginning to feel shaky. He could pull through, though. He was pretty sure of that. Maybe Chicago would be nice to him and let him rest between this and the next call. Maybe catch a couple of hours of sleep and an actual meal. That would be something.   
What Matt hadn’t calculated was the adrenaline crash that was about to hit. Normally, they all handled it like a pro, but it was tough to ignore when you were already at your limit.   
Matt shuddered, cold sweat suddenly making its way down his back, forming little beads on his forehead. Maybe it was time to sit down for a minute, catch his breath. Get a sip of water.  
He started making his way over to Truck 81, aiming for the front of the vehicle. That little bumper was perfect to sit on.   
He had just taken a couple of steps, when his hearing started to go. First, everything got kind of muffled, like he was underwater. Then whatever noise was around him got replaced by a high-pitched sound.   
Matt cursed under his breath to himself. If his hearing was gone, it wasn’t long until the rest of him followed. He’d passed out enough times to know how his body worked.   
His casual walk turned into a purposeful stride, but that didn’t help much. Matt didn’t even make it ten more feet before his vision first turned back and white and then faded out completely. 

Kelly had been keeping an eye on Matt for the last couple of hours. He knew that he couldn’t have gotten much sleep – sharing an apartment gave you that kind of knowledge. Kelly was quite a night owl, but Matt had managed to stay up later and apparently get up earlier than him the last few days. Kelly knew him long enough by now that he knew Matt was reaching a point of no return. And it seemed like it was coming faster than both of them would have liked.   
Matt had collected his Halligan and was on his way back towards Truck when Kelly noticed how pale he had gotten. Kelly frowned and took a couple of steps in Matt’s direction when the Lieutenant changed his pace to a fast walk.  
Before Kelly could react, Matt swayed.   
“Shit!”  
He bridged the last feet between them and was able to stop Matt’s head from banging onto the street when he collapsed.   
Kelly slowly lowered Matt fully onto the ground and crouched down next to him. If this was just an adrenaline crash, he would come to in a matter of seconds. If not, then it was time for recovery position.  
“Case?”  
To Kelly’s relief, Matt’s eyelids fluttered and opened as soon as he said his name.   
“Sev?”  
Kelly patted him on the shoulder and motioned to Capp for a bottle of water.  
“Next time, just take a break, man.”


	11. Stitches

When Severide came home and went directly for the fridge to hopefully find a long forgotten bottle of beer, he stopped dead in his tracks.  
A knife covered in blood lay on a cutting board. Seemed like Matt had been cooking?  
“Matt?”  
It wasn’t just a bit of blood though. It was enough that Kelly didn’t even need Matt answering his call, as he could just follow the drops of blood on the floor.   
“In the bathroom!” Matt called out.  
He sounded okay, al least. On the other hand, the bathroom was where they stored their big first aid kit. Kelly pushed open the door to find Matt sitting on the closed toilet, his left hand wrapped in a kitchen towel. Which was more or less soaking with blood. Said first aid kit was sitting on the floor next to him, halfway opened.   
“Special recipe?” Kelly asked with a smirk and then crouched down next to Matt’s injured hand.  
“Ha ha, very funny. The knife slipped,” Matt explained and extended his hand for Kelly to see.  
Kelly carefully took off the towel and winced at the cut. It was long and deep.   
“This needs stitches, Matt.”  
“Nah. It’s not that bad.”  
Kelly shook his hand, put the towel back on so that Matt could hold it there until he got everything he needed for the dressing.   
“I’m pretty sure I can see a tendon, Case. You definitely got yourself a trip to Med.”  
Matt just groaned.  
“I just wanted to make a damn casserole.”


	12. Don't Move

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this is waaaay late.  
I've been in hospital twice since I last uploaded - seems like the baby will be a trouble maker. Well, he already is :D  
Hopefully, everything will go (more) smoothly now and you guys get your chapters a little more regularly.

“Don’t move, Casey!”  
Yeah, he kind of had the same thought already.  
Matt tried to tighten his grip on the thin cable even more. The thick gloves he was wearing didn’t really help the cause. He grunted and felt the cable move an inch.  
“I’m slipping.”  
“Hold on, Captain!”  
Casey could see Herrmann running towards him, rope in his hands and Severide hot on his heels.  
He closed his eyes again and concentrated on the strings of metal in his hands. He would not let go. He could not let go.   
“Almost there, Case,” Severide’s voice was right next to his ear. Matt could feel one hand grabbing his jacket near his neck, in case he should slip off. Not that Kelly would be able to hold him for long, if at all, but is was reassuring as hell. At the same time, someone fastened the sling around his stomach. Not the best option, but they couldn’t reach his feet for a safer and more comfortable harness.   
“We got you, Casey,” Herrmann sounded so confident, like nothing could go wrong. Casey felt proud to have him as acting Lieutenant on Engine, they really got the best leader they could have asked for.  
Two more tugs later and Matt knew, he was safely secured.   
He opened his eyes again and found himself inches away from both Herrmann and Severide – who were grinning at him.  
“What a way to start your day, huh?”


	13. Adrenaline

Not very many people knew that he was allergic to apples and a couple of grasses. Matt had just never felt the need to tell everyone, he was careful with what he ate anyway. That was the nice thing with apples – you could generally tell when they were an ingredient. He would have it much worse with peanuts or soy. Still, the last couple of incidents involving Matt and apples had been progressively worse. It was quite normal for an allergic reaction to intensify with every exposure and it seemed like that was happening to Matt as well. When he was a teenager, eating apples would just result in a tingly mouth and that was it. The last time he accidentally had a piece of pie with apple juice in it, his blood pressure had actually dropped enough for him to almost pass out – never mind the itching hives that had appeared all over his body.  
Matt had finally caved and informed Boden that the allergy was getting worse, should anything ever happen at the firehouse, at least him and Kelly would know. That had been almost one and a half years ago. One and a half years without any apple-incidents. Until today, that is.  
A woman they had rescued from a fire two weeks ago had come by the fire house and brought them cupcakes. Blueberry cupcakes, she had specified when Matt has asked. So, safe cupcakes for him, then, he had thought.   
Now, two calls and nothing at eat later, the firefighters were more or less fighting about said pastries. They were starving.  
“Saved you one,” Matt handed Severide one of the blue-ish muffins and sat down next to him on Truck’s rim. They had parked outside for some drills and left the Truck there for the moment, the sun had finally come out for the first time this spring.   
“Yay. Didn’t think there’d be any left,” Kelly said and took a bite.  
“Privilege of being the Captain. I want cupcakes, I get some,” Matt snickered and sunk his teeth in the fluffy pastry. It was delicious.   
Even Kelly hummed his approval. It wasn’t easy to find something sweet that he liked. He’d never had a sweet tooth like Matt.  
Three bites into the cupcake, Matt felt that tingling in his mouth that he had avoided for so long.   
But these were blueberry cupcakes?   
“Sev?”   
It had to be something in his voice, judging by the way Kelly’s head snapped towards him. He put his cupcake down, one hand immediately on Matt’s shoulder.  
“I think there’s apples in there.”  
The itching had already set in and he started to feel clammy. His blood pressure shouldn’t be tanking so soon. 

“Shit!” Severide cursed and turned to look towards Ambo 61. Seemed like Brett and Foster were doing an inventory. Perfect.  
“All right, up you get,” he said, hauling Casey to his feet and slinging one arm around his shoulders.   
He could feel that Matt’s breathing was getting laboured, almost to the point of wheezing. Kelly had only witnessed a couple of his allergic reactions, but they had never progressed this quickly.  
“Brett! Foster!”  
Shouting would only attract the attention of everyone in earshot, so he settled for a normal volume but let the urgency bleed through.  
“Stay with me, Case.”  
“Severide? What’s going on?” Foster met them halfway to the ambulance, instantly supporting Casey’s other side, while Brett pushed the gurney back into the Ambo to make room for them.  
“Allergic reaction,” Kelly answered and hauled Matt the two steps into the back of the ambulance before sitting him down on the stretcher and pulling the back closed.  
“Matt? Tell me how you’re doing,” Brett asked, taking his blood pressure at the same time.  
Kelly watched her frown at the reading and then tracked Foster roaming through the jump bag for an EpiPen.   
“Must’ve been apples in the cupcakes. Um. Tingly. Itchy. I’m starting to feel dizzy, short of breath,” Matt mumbled, leaning forward so that his elbows were propped on his thighs, head in his hands.  
“This is a known allergy, then? Is this level of reaction normal for you?” Foster asked, the auto-injector with the epinephrine in her hand.  
Matt just nodded.  
“It’s been getting worse. After last time, he carries an EpiPen,” Kelly supplied and rubbed a hand down Matt’s back.   
“Then you know the drill, Casey,” Foster said not unkindly and helped Matt shimmy down his pants far enough for her get to his thigh muscle.   
Brett winced when the needle went in and turned to face Kelly.  
“I know he’s not going to like it, but we’ll need to take him in. Just to be sure that it doesn’t get any worse.”   
Kelly nodded. “Yeah. I’ll pin him down if I need to.”  
He inched his way over to Brett and lowered his voice, “Just a heads-up but a sick bag will probably come in handy.”  
Brett grinned at him, unzipped the pocket in her jacket and tugged at the bright blue bag in there so Kelly could see it.  
“Thought so.”


	14. Tear-stained

Kelly hadn’t seen Matt today. At all. It was the first day after shift, so it was quite normal for them to catch up on sleep, but they normally saw each other around noon at the latest. If they were both feeling it, they would cook together or order in. But they would always run into each other in the kitchen. Today though, it was almost four o’clock in the afternoon and Kelly hadn’t heard a single noise from Matt’s room. He knew his fellow firefighter was home, because his keys were right next to the door, where he had left them yesterday. When Matt hadn’t turned up for lunch, Kelly thought that he was just tired or not hungry, but he was getting worried now.   
For what felt like the tenth time today, he tiptoed to Matt’s door and, well, eavesdropped. Still, he couldn’t hear anything. There was just nothing to eavesdrop on.  
Kelly decided that enough was enough. He carefully knocked on the door, keeping it quiet in case Matt was actually asleep.   
“Matt? You okay, buddy?”   
It took a couple of seconds before a thin version of Matt’s voice made it through the door.  
“Yeah. I’m fine.”  
Kelly shook his head.  
“Yeah, no. That’s not going to fly. You sound like hell.” He paused for all of two seconds before adding, “I don’t care if you’re decent or not, I’m coming in.”  
Another two seconds later, Kelly pushed the door open and saw Matt sitting on his bed, no book, laptop or anything else he could have entertained himself with in sight. What Kelly did notice, however, was how blotchy Matt’s face was.   
Something clicked. Matt’s face was not flushed, but tear-stained.   
“Talk to me,” Kelly sat down next to Matt, their shoulders touching.   
It seemed like Matt knew that his friend had realised he’d been crying, as he sniffled and rubbed at his eyes.  
“Uhm. This is stupid,” he said in a self-deprecating way, almost laughing. Before Kelly could say anything to that, though, Matt shook his head and continued.  
“It’s just – it’s the anniversary of Hallie’s death.”  
Kelly winced. He was a shitty friend for not remembering the date.  
“Matt –“  
Matt just shook his head. “Nah. Like I said, it’s stupid. It’s been years. I got married since she passed – and divorced. I shouldn’t be feeling this way.”  
“Who says how you’ve got to feel? You loved her.”  
Kelly shrugged and could have hit himself when he felt Matt’s breathing hitch again. Great, he just made him start crying again.   
“Listen. There’s no way I’m letting you stay in your room all day, when you’re feeling this lousy. So, I’m gonna make you an Irish Coffee, order us a pizza and see what crappy movie’s playing. You’ve got five minutes or I’ll come and get you.”   
Kelly nodded to himself, gently pushed his shoulder against Matt’s and got up. Just before he was out of the door, he heard Matt huff a laugh.  
“Shay taught you well.”  
Kelly’s mind instantly flashed back to the two of them on the couch, movie playing and sharing a tub of ice cream.  
“Yeah, she did.”


	15. Scars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't even know what this is..

They all had scars.   
Physical ones, psychological ones. From burns, cuts, blisters. You name it.   
There were the ones that were only remembered when they were seen.   
And then there were the ones that were reminders of what they had seen.   
There were ones they were proud of, some they were not proud of. Some that were proof of their courage. Some of their recklessness.   
No matter who you asked in Firehouse 51, they all had their scars and their burden to bear.   
Still, they would never ask each other about them. Everyone had seen the horrific burns on Chief Boden’s back, yet only some knew how he got them.   
It was Boden’s story to tell, the scars’ story to tell, not the firefighters’ place to pry.   
Everyone knew about the scar on Casey’s head from his brain surgery. They all knew the story behind it. The ramifications of it though, only few were privy to.   
Few knew about the scar running along Severide’s shoulder from when the nerve damage had been repaired. Barely anyone even knew how dramatic the whole situation had been. And almost no one knew about the drugs connected to it.   
They all had scars.


	16. Pinned Down

Matt’s scream was heart-piercing. Kelly actually felt chills run down his back before he snapped into action. It was rare that one of them showed pain in such an obvious way – it had to be bad. Really bad.  
“Casey! Talk to me!”  
The urgency in Boden’s voice couldn’t mask his concern one bit.  
Kelly had his mask on, mere feet away from the door of the burning building. He was just waiting for Boden’s directions. He wanted to just storm in there and get Matt out, but this was one of the situations in which he had to keep his cool.   
They heard a pained grunt before Matt’s voice crackled through their radios.  
“I’m pinned down, Chief. First floor. Beam came down,” Kelly heard him gasping for breath again before he continued. “I’m stuck. Can’t lift the beam by myself.”  
Boden nodded once at Kelly and the rest of the firefighters standing by, before he grabbed his radio.  
“We’re coming, Casey, hold on.”  
Kelly made his way up the stairs and immediately saw the beam that had collapsed. The heavy wooden pole lay across the floor, effectively blocking the entire hallway. Kelly’s eyes focused in on the only important thing he was seeing – Matt lying face down on the floor, at least one leg pinned under the beam.  
“Casey!”  
Matt looked up at him, half propped onto his elbows. His face was ashen even through the mask and the soot that had gathered on it.   
“Sev,” he panted and then let out a pained grunt again. “Get me out.”  
Kelly just nodded and started directing his men. If he let himself think of how similar this situation was to the call when Matt had suffered the brain injury, he wouldn’t be able to do his job. This time, at least, Matt was conscious and talking.   
It took maybe one and a half minutes before they got everything set up to safely lift the beam off of Matt’s leg without endangering themselves or him even further. It felt like some of the longest ninety seconds of Kelly’s life.  
When everyone was in position, him and Herrmann crouched down next to Matt, ready to pull him out.   
Kelly locked eyes with his friend. “This is going to hurt like hell.”  
“I know.”  
Matt nodded, bowed his head and clenched his hands in anticipation.  
“On three.”  
Severide counted down and started dragging Casey towards him as soon as the weight lifted. Matt screamed again before going slack in his grip.  
Herrmann turned his head to look at Kelly, shook written across his face. “He passed out.”  
“Probably from pain,” Kelly commented and opened his radio. “Chief, we need Paramedics.”   
They were probably already waiting for them, but better to be safe than sorry.  
“Standing by.”  
Sometimes he wondered how Boden could stay this calm when one of his men was in danger.  
The beam crashing to the floor again snapped his attention back into the hallway.   
“Help us carry him!”  
They all grabbed onto Casey’s jacket and pants, lifted him up and carefully made their way back down the flight of stairs. Just when they took the last step, Matt went rigid. One glance down at him told Kelly why – he’d come to again.   
Though he couldn’t be sure with the fire still raging in the house, Kelly swore he heard Matt whimper.   
“We’ve got you, Case. You’ll be okay.”


	17. "Stay with me"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so short, I kept writing "Stab Wound" again and had to find a way around that :D

“Casey, listen to me. There’s no sleeping on the job, do you understand?”  
Boden’s voice filtered through the chaos in his mind. Slow. Steady. Like honey running through gears. It was kind of comforting.  
“Open your eyes, Matt, c’mon.”  
Why though? It was nice to just relax and listen to him. With that honey-like voice.   
When knuckles rubbed over his sternum, he did open his eyes, however.  
Ouch.  
“I need you to stay with me, Matt.”  
Matt thought he might have hummed in response and did his best to keep his eyes open this time. The Chief had donned the honey voice and switched to ordering. He couldn’t not listen to his Chief, after all.   
His eyelids wouldn’t really cooperate, though, no matter how hard he tried. They fluttered shut again.  
“Stay with me, Matt.”


	18. Muffled Scream

“Don’t. Kelly, please.”

Matt was whimpering, almost delirious with pain, it seemed.

“I need to, Matt.”

He wasn’t liking this either, but if they wanted to get out of here, he needed to straighten out Matt’s femur.

“We need to try and put the bone back where it belongs. You know you’ll feel better after.”

Matt just groaned. “No.”

“I can’t carry you out of here if we don’t straighten and brace it!”

Matt grabbed his hand even tighter and let out a pained groan again. “It hurts, Sev.”

“I know. I know.”

The hand that wasn’t being crushed by Matt found its way to his friend’s cheek, stroking away the tears. Kelly had the bad feeling that the broken femur was not their only worry. Yes, the fracture surely hurt like hell, but he was almost positive that Matt had broken or dislocated something else to be in this much pain. He just hoped his pelvis was okay. They really didn’t need Matt to be bleeding internally on top of everything else.

“I’ll make it better, Matt, I promise. Bite down on that belt.”

Matt took a deep, stuttering breath in, closed his eyes and let go of Kelly’s hand – he would need both of them to pull on his leg.

“Ready?”

Kelly doubted Matt was ready. Hell, he himself wasn’t ready.

“On three. One, two –“

He pulled with all he had, trying to straighten the thigh out. Although Matt’s screams were muffled thanks to the belt he was biting on, they pierced right through Kelly’s heart.

One last pull and he felt the bone slide back into place. Not wasting a moment, Kelly braced it with what he had at hand and only then dared to look at Matt.

His friend was pale, almost grey, sweat shining on his forehead.

“Done. All done.”

Matt nodded, slowly opened his eyes again.

“Does it feel any better?”

Matt nodded again. “A little.” He whimpered again and reached for Kelly with an urgency that send his heart racing again.

“Think I’m gonna be sick, though.”

Kelly thought _he_ might be too.


	19. Asphyxiation

Casey didn’t suspect there was anything wrong with his equipment the first couple of runs he made into the burning house. Only when he was on the third floor, continuing the search for any remaining residents, did he notice that something was up.

Frowning, he stopped for a second and glanced down at his manometer. It still showed a pressure of 150 bar, more than enough for him to complete his search and get back down. Still, he felt like he was getting less and less breathable air, as if he had reached the end of his air supply.

Matt didn’t have a watch on him or anything else that would indicate how much time he had already spent with his mask on, no clue of how much of his air he most probably had already used. Taking in one more deep breath, there was no doubt left in his mind that his tank had run empty. However that could have happened. They checked their equipment after every single call and yet his manometer was apparently broken.

“This is Casey. I’m on the third floor, I’ve got technical problems,” he radioed through to the rest of the firefighters on call. “I’m out of air.”

Almost immediately, Severide’s voice crackled through. “How much do you have left?”

Casey tried to pull in a breath and closed his eyes for a second.

“None. Manometer’s broken. Coming down, now.”

He knew that he had everyone on high alert now. They all knew that without air, Casey wouldn’t have long before passing out or taking the mask off and inhaling smoke. They also knew that he could not spare any more air to make conversation.

“Case, I’m coming towards you. Make your way down the hallway and then down the stairs. We can’t reach any of the windows where you are, we need to get out the same way we got in.”

Matt nodded to himself although Severide couldn’t see it. He had already made the assumptions and just rounded the corner to the staircase. After he had taken the first flight of stairs, Matt had to make a choice.

Either take his mask off now and start inhaling smoke or wait a bit longer. If he waited, however, he would get more desperate and would probably take in more smoke, making the inhalation worse. He could try to pull in shallow breaths if he got rid of his mask now.

When the next breath left him gasping for air that his tank wasn’t supplying anymore, Matt pulled of his mask without thinking about it anymore.

The thick smoke entered his lungs, sending him into a coughing fit almost immediately. He had exchanged one mode of asphyxiation against another. Perfect.

His eyes started watering so badly, that he closed them and made his way down the stairs solely by touch.

Matt was pretty sure he had made it down two storeys when he felt hands on him.

“Matt!”

He just coughed even harder in response to Kelly’s call.

“Hold on.”

Someone supported him on his other side, dragging him down the stairs together with Kelly. Suddenly, Matt felt slightly sweaty rubber pushed onto his forehead and cheeks. Wonderful fresh air filled his lungs.

Blinking his watering eyes open, Matt glanced to his left and saw Kelly without a mask on, now coughing himself.

Three more steps and they finally made it outside.

Severide pulled the mask off of Matt without asking and had apparently anticipated Casey immediately crouching down, coughing as if his live depended on it.

He felt Kelly kneeling down next to him, holding him steady when the coughing turned into gagging and Matt staring throwing up.

“Jesus, Matt.”

More voices joined Kelly’s, but Matt really couldn’t care less who was talking and what they were talking about.

This had been too close a call.


	20. Trembling

“I didn’t know you had a death wish this winter,” Severide greeted Matt when he stumbled through their door.

He’d been sitting on the couch, watching a game, when he’d heard Matt trying to get the keys into the lock of their front door. After what felt like minutes, he had finally got up and opened the door, expecting to find Matt maybe drunk, but not half frozen to death.

“Car broke down,” Matt grunted out through chattering teeth and remained standing next to the door, not even taking his hat off.

“Sure. Why not call a cab instead of walking? Or me?”

“Cell’s out of battery.”

Kelly just shook his head. “Course it is.”

Matt shrugged and kept on trembling with cold, still standing there like a lost kid.

“You know the deal, Case. Get out of the cold clothes, change into something nice and warm,” Kelly grumbled and started unzipping Matt’s coat.

He got as far as taking off the coat, gloves, hat and had just started on the sweater, when Matt finally caught up with what was happening. He slapped at Kelly’s fingers.

“I can do it myself.”

Kelly just chuckled and turned around, making his way to the kitchen counter.

“You get yourself comfortable while I boil some water. You need some tea.”

He heard Matt shuffle towards his room. “Cocoa.”

Kelly huffed a laugh, switched off the kettle and went to get the milk instead.

“Fine, cocoa.”


	21. Laced Drink

For Herrmann, it had started as a normal evening off shift, enjoying the buzzing noise of Molly’s customers. Their bar had gained popularity over the course of the last few years – not just among the Fire and Police Departments and a couple of people form Med, but also in the general neighbourhood of Molly’s. His one idea that didn’t tank.

Herrmann grinned to himself as he polished the glasses from the dish washer behind the bar. More or less the whole firehouse was crammed around two tables, some of them alternating between the bar stools and said tables. It had been a good shift with a couple of saves that no one had thought possible and they had come to celebrate. Even the Chief was there.

Word had gotten around and a few of the other customers had got together and had bought the whole firehouse a round of beer. It had been a nice sign of solidarity and gratefulness. Or so Herrmann had thought.

Maybe fifteen minutes after those drinks, Casey made his way over to Herrmann, his gait slightly unsteady.

“Could you get me a glass of water, Herrmann?”

Herrmann frowned at his Captain and instantly filled a glass with cold water and some ice.

“You okay, Casey?”

He watched as Casey’s forehead crinkled, as if he had to think about his answer for a moment. That couldn’t be a good sign.

While he waited for an answer, Herrmann made a rough estimate of how much Casey had had to drink up to this point. It couldn’t have been more than three beers. He shouldn’t be this disoriented.

“Um. Yeah, I guess,” Casey finally answered and downed half of the water. “Didn’t think I had this much to drink, though.”

Something was wrong.

“You didn’t.”

Herrmann looked up with urgency and thanked Severide’s sixth sense for when Casey was in trouble. They made eye contact almost immediately and one nod in Casey’s direction was enough to get Severide to come over.

“I feel strange,” Casey mumbled and Herrmann turned to him again.

“Sit down, Casey. And keep sipping that water.”

Severide pushed his way through the bunch of men next to Casey, looked at his friend and then at Herrmann.

“What’s going on?”

Herrmann shook his head slightly. He had no idea how this could have happened.

“I think someone laced his drink.”

“What?!”

Severide turned to Casey, put both hands on his shoulders and leaned slightly towards him.

“Matt? How’re you feeling, buddy?”

Herrmann watched Casey blink just like he had before, apparently searching for an answer.

Severide didn’t even wait for Casey to reply but turned to Herrmann again.

“How could this have happened?”

Before he could answer, however, Casey slurred, “I drank Sylvie’s beer. She didn’t like it.”

Both Herrmann and Severide closed their eyes for a second.

“Matt, you managed to get drugged, buddy. C’mon.”

Severide pulled Casey off of the bar stool, slung an arm around his shoulders and steadied him as he swayed.

“I’ll tell Brett to be careful, you take care of Casey,” Herrmann said and nodded at Severide.

“Thanks,” Severide nodded back and started hauling Casey towards the door.

When Casey asked where they were going, just before they made their way out of the door, Severide replied, “To Med. Again. For the third time this week.”

Herrmann just shook his head again.


	22. Hallucination

“Sev?”

Kelly didn’t think he’d ever heard Casey’s voice this thin and frightened.

“What’s up, Matt? You okay?”

“I – I think I’m hallucinating.”

He almost did a double take and was already on his way out of the supermarket, cart left standing in the middle of the aisle, before consciously thinking about it. Without any explanation, Kelly more or less ran through the store and squeezed his way past the line at check-out.

“What?”

Matt had been fine when Kelly had left this morning.

“I’m seeing – things. That can’t be real.”

Jesus. Whatever he was seeing, it didn’t sound good. Kelly unlocked his car and started the engine.

“Where are you, Matt?”

“Home. I think.”

Not exactly the answer Kelly had hoped for, but he had to trust Matt’s word for now.

“Sit tight, I’m on my way.”

He took the next corner a bit too tightly, but didn’t really care. If he was pulled over, he’d sort that out. Getting to Matt was priority right now.

“I don’t even know if _this_ is real. Are you real, Kelly?”

Kelly closed his eyes for a second. This was bad.

“Matt, buddy, I’m the realest thing you could think of. I promise you, this is real, okay?”

“Right.”

He didn’t sound too convinced, though.

Red light. Fantastic. Deciding to use the time he had, Kelly put his phone on speaker and opened the group chat of the firehouse. _Need ambulance at my place. Casey’s in trouble. Hallucination. _

“Talk to me. What’s going on?”

“I – I’m – Just come home. Please?”

God, he hated how fragile Matt sounded.

“I’m on my way, you hear me. Ten minutes tops.”

Kelly prayed he wouldn’t need the ten minutes. If he got lucky with traffic lights, he should make it in seven. Maybe five if he really pushed it.

“Okay. Okay. I can do that.”

“Yes, you can.”

His phone vibrated. Kelly glanced down too see Herrmann had replied. _Done. Update asap._

Seemed like Herrmann knew he didn’t really have the time for replies right now.

Matt’s voice broke through the momentary silence.

“I called you before. Didn’t I?”

Kelly shook his head, pushing down on the gas even more.

“No, Case, you didn’t. But you _are _calling me now. This is real, Matt.”

Hopefully, he believed him. Just a couple of blocks until he was home.

“This is real.”


	23. Bleeding Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm late again.  
So sorry :)
> 
> Thank you so so much for all your lovely comments, I love reading them!  
And I also love the idea of sending me prompts if you'd like something written. I just can't promise you if and when I'll be getting to them, because of the baby we'll be welcoming in five weeks tops :D
> 
> Again, thanks so much for reading, commenting, leaving kudos and most importantly, for being patient with me!!

He was losing his grip on consciousness. He was losing it fast.

Matt wasn’t really sure how much time he had left before he’d pass out. Probably not enough time to see which one of his team would pull him out. He almost hoped it wasn’t anyone from Truck. Severide would be just as bad, though.

Matt felt the grip he had on his leg loosen. Strange how he was just a witness to his fingers letting go, not really able to do anything against it.

The puddle of blood spreading from his thigh almost reached his foot by now. The seat of his pants had to be saturated with blood. He just couldn’t feel it because of the fabric.

Someone told him to hang on over the radio. He couldn’t find the energy to match a name to the voice. His fingers loosened just a bit more. So little change in pressure and yet so much more blood that was flowing. Matt really wanted to close his eyes for a second. He couldn’t, though. He knew that.

The moment his eyes fluttered shut on their own accord, he felt a strong pressure on his leg.

“We’ve got you, Casey.”


	24. Secret Injury

It had been dumb luck. Nothing more. During their last call, an overturned car with two victims trapped inside – something had poked in between the fastenings of Casey’s turnover coat. Not really thinking anything of it, he had gone on, business as usual. They’d had to get the people out, after all. A couple of minutes after they had been freed, Matt had snuck a hand inside of his coat, his fingers finding a torn shirt. They came away sticky with blood. Matt had cursed, looked around to make sure no one had seen, washed the blood off of his fingers with a bottle of water and got back on Truck. He’d deal with the cut later, it was no reason to worry Foster and Brett.

When they got back to the firehouse, Matt had found some excuse to not hang his coat on the mirror of Truck, like he usually did, but change out of it in the room they kept all of their gear.

Now he carefully pulled off the coat and looked down.

“Damn,” Matt cursed under his breath again and took in the state of his shirt.

There was a two-inch rip in the fabric and a matching wound on the side of his stomach. His grey shirt had soaked through with blood. Thankfully, the blood had clotted so that the gash was no longer bleeding, but had stuck the shirt to the wound. This was going to be a bitch to get off and clean out. Pulling slightly at the shirt, Matt winced in pain. No way this was coming off without re-opening the wound. Matt sighed. He needed a shower anyway.

Matt grabbed a zip-up hoodie from one of the racks, put it on and went straight to his quarters.

“Casey!

Matt stopped in his tracks and closed his eyes briefly. This was the opposite of perfect timing.

He turned.

“What’s up, Sev?”

Kelly was standing in front of him, waving a leaflet from the pizza place down the street.

“We thought we could use some pizza. What d’you want?”

Matt had to suppress a wince when he shrugged. “As long as there’s no pineapple on it.”

He didn’t know how well he hid his injury, when Kelly narrowed his eyes at him.

“Hey, you okay?”

Matt willed himself to smile.

“Yeah, sure. Just wanted to grab a shower, that car was filthy.”

Severide nodded at him, although he still looked suspicious that something was up.

“Right. Well, I’ll just get our regular one, then.”

“Thanks.”

Not wasting any more time and by that giving anyone else from the house the opportunity to run into him, Matt gathered a change of clothes, his toiletries and towel and went to the showers.

Thankfully, they were all empty.

He took off his pants and socks, leaving on the shirt that was stuck to him and his underwear – he had the feeling that it was better this way.

Matt turned on the water, waiting until it was nice and warm, before getting under the spray and wetting his shirt where it was stuck to the wound.

The water running down his body quickly turned red, the dried blood being washed off, mingling with a few fresh drops when the shirt finally came free from the gash.

“Thank God,” Matt mumbled and let the shirt fall onto the ground.

Now that the wound was exposed and he could actually take a good look at it, it seemed quite a bit worse than he had expected. Pulling slightly at his skin, he was surprised to see that he was able to pull the flesh as far apart as he could.

This needed stitches.

Matt groaned. Seemed like he had to tell someone after all.

He quickly rinsed his hair before taking a few minutes to get the wound on his stomach cleaned. It was already burning from the shampoo anyway.

“Matt? Did you drown or something?”

Matt’s head snapped in the direction of Kelly’s voice.

“The pizza’s already here and you’re still in the shower.”

He had to say _something_.

“This is not what you think it is.”

He heard Kelly snort.

“I’d be really surprised if you were jerking off in there.”

Matt huffed out a laugh, turned to turn off the shower spray and with that pulled on the wound. He grunted.

“Matt?”

Jesus, that had hurt. And fresh blood was now running down his abs. Fantastic.

“Hey, you all right?”

Matt just hummed and took a controlled breath in.

Before he could say anything, the shower curtain got pulled to the side, Severide suddenly inches from his face. Good thing he had left his underwear on, then. Not that they didn’t know each other naked, but this didn’t have to get any more awkward than it already was.

“Hey!”

Matt grabbed at the curtain to pull it closed again, but Kelly had already seen the damage.

“What happened?”

“It’s from last call. Didn’t think it was this bad,” Matt explained, feeling like a school boy who’d been summoned to the principal’s office.

Kelly just shook his head. “Of course you didn’t.”

He took a step forward to look at the wound more closely.

“You do know that this needs stitches, right?”

Matt nodded, “Yeah.”

He looked up at his friend, who sighed and then turned around to reach for Matt’s towel and pants.

“You put those on and I’ll get Brett in here.”


	25. Humiliation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for all of your lovely comments - please don't stop <3
> 
> Just to be clear on this: I do not think that Matt *should* be humiliated. But I am sure as hell that Matt *would* be, because he's an idiot :)

Seizures had been common during the first few weeks after Matt’s head injury. They had all been told multiple times that they would occur during recovery and then would eventually stop all together. The whole house knew that Casey was going to be fine and that he would be able to return to duty in a matter of weeks. Still, knowing those facts and seeing someone seizing were two very different pairs of shoes.

Casey had been back at the station for about a week now, helping out with paperwork and lending a hand where it was needed. He’d been going crazy at home and Kelly had had enough. After a conversation with Boden, they had found a solution to keep Matt occupied until he was fit for Truck again.

So far, the week had been going well. Matt had been feeling a lot more like himself, if Kelly were to judge, and was smiling again. The last couple of weeks of medical leave had been tough on him.

Still, even though Matt was getting better, Kelly kept a close eye on him. Matt was seizing less often, but it still happened. And he liked to be there when Matt fell, seized and woke up. Making sure he was fine. Reassuring himself that Matt would be okay.

They were on day six without a fit today and they had never made it this long before. Kelly should have known that it was too good to be true.

They’d just eaten lunch and were still sitting around the huge table in the kitchen, when he noticed Matt spacing out.

Not wanting to draw attention to them if this was nothing to worry about, Kelly nudged Matt’s thigh beneath the table. “Case?”

When Matt acknowledged neither the nudge nor being spoken to, Kelly knew what was coming.

“All right, Matt, I got you.”

There was no way the whole table didn’t know something was up by now.

“Severide?”

Herrmann was already on his feet and halfway around the table by the time Kelly had turned Matt’s chair around so he could get him off of it.

“Simple partial seizure. He’s going to go under.”

Herrmann cursed creatively and was next to Kelly in a matter of seconds.

“Let’s get him on the ground.”

Herrmann nodded. Together, they gently manoeuvred Matt onto the ground.

Kelly glanced up to see the rest of the table looking down at them, frozen to their seats. They had never witnessed one of Matt’s seizures before this one.

“Cruz, give me your jacket,” Kelly ordered and hoped that the command would not only snap Cruz into action, but also the rest of the firefighters.

It worked.

Just when Matt started seizing, Cruz’s jacket was under his head, cushioning the hard floor and the rest of the crew finally snapped into action. While Kelly was thankful that they moved the tables and chairs out of the way of Matt’s jerking body, he didn’t really pay them any attention. It was common for Matt to get sick during a partial seizure – and now he was having a tonic-clonic one on top it, after lunch. Kelly’d been trained to leave the seizing person be, to not touch them until the seizure had run its course and only then turn them on their side. Not really an option to prevent aspirating, though. The second Matt gagged, both him and Herrmann reacted immediately, carefully turning Matt without restricting his movements too much. Most of Matt’s lunch made a reappearance on the kitchen floor.

“You’re okay, buddy,” Kelly mumbled, glancing up at Herrmann who got the hint.

“How about you give the Captain some room, huh? He’ll be all right.”

Hearing Herrmann’s Lieutenant-voice, most of Truck and Squad scattered, still visibly shaken.

Kelly nodded at Herrmann. “Thanks.”

Herrmann smiled one of his warm smiles, “I got you.”

Matt’s shaking was slowly dying down. A glance at the clock on the wall told Kelly it had been three minutes, fifteen seconds.

“He’s not going to like this,” Herrmann nodded his head in the direction of Matt’s legs.

Kelly sighed. They all knew that people couldn’t control their bladder during a seizure, still, Matt’s face burned with humiliation each and every time it happened.

“No. No he won’t.”

Another ten seconds later, Matt finally stilled, breathing evening out. Kelly carefully turned him fully into recovery position after moving him away from the puddle of vomit on the floor.

“I’ll go get something to clean up the mess and find him a blanket,” Herrmann said and got up off the floor. “And then I’ll leave you two alone, he doesn’t need to know I saw.”

“Thanks, Herrmann.” After a beat, Kelly added, “He’s going to be mortified, anyway.”

Herrmann smiled at him again and pushed the door open.

“Yeah, well, he’s an idiot.”


	26. Abandonment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having trouble with the Archive at the moment, I'm so looking forward to the new servers next year :D  
Long story short, I've been wanting to post this for the last two days but couldn't access the Archive, argh

The Chief had given them the order to pull back, now. The fire had weakened the structure of the building to an extent that he feared it was too dangerous for his men to keep working. Working on getting Casey out.

Matt had been searching for victims in the basement, when the stairs had collapsed, effectively trapping him in the fire. Thankfully, he hadn’t found anyone else down there.

Herrmann, Mouch, Severide, they all had been working frantically to get Casey out of the basement, but with no luck so far. There were no windows so they could get to him from outside of the building and they couldn’t reach the entrance to the basement from within the house because the wall had already collapsed.

Matt knew what was coming. He’d been more or less prepared for this scenario since he had become as a firefighter – it came with the job.

“Pull out, now!”

Boden’s voice had carried through his radio maybe half a minute ago, followed immediately by Kelly and Herrmann arguing that Matt was still trapped in the basement.

“The whole building will be coming down any second. I will not lose all of you.”

Casey closed his eyes for a split second. They were going to abandon him. They _needed _to abandon him.

“This is Casey. I understand, Chief. Kelly, Herrmann, get out of here.”

Matt could practically feel the frustration, panic and desperation of his men in every cell of his boy. But they didn’t have any choice.

“Now!”

He added and was left waiting for the inevitable. Another thirty seconds later and the world around him erupted in a mixture of more flames, flying debris and black smoke.

Casey’s eyes snapped open. The heart monitor next to him was beeping erratically, as if it was accusing him of having a nightmare.

“Matt, you okay?”

Matt turned his head away from the monitor, facing the chair he had thought to be empty.

“Why are you still here? It’s the middle of the night,” he rasped in lieu of answering the question.

Kelly slightly shook his head and reached for Matt’s hand.

“You’re stuck with me. I’ll never leave your side ever again.”


	27. Ransom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I noticed that I tend to use a more descriptive style and focus less on direct speech - just to spice it up a bit, I thought I'd challenge myself and do the opposite.   
Hope it's still clear who's speaking at all times :)

“You’re not seriously telling me _over the phone _that you were held ransom?!”

Kelly couldn’t believe it.

“I’d tell you in person, but they won’t let me leave.”

“Yeah, well, because apparently you got hurt, Matt!”

“It’s not –“

“Don’t you dare tell me that it’s not that bad. I’m already on my way. And I’ll make sure to text Halstead to keep you in the ER. There won’t be any signing out AMA until I’ve seen you, you hear me?”

He heard Matt snort.

“You sound like you’re my mother.”

“Well, someone has to be. Jesus Matt, how do you even get into situations like these?”

Thanks to the paper gown Matt was in, Kelly could hear the shrug over the phone.

“It’s not like I’m trying to.”

“And still you manage just fine.” Exasperation was his norm by now concerning Matthew Casey.

“I was just going for a walk!”

There was some rustling on the other end of the line while Kelly hurried outside.

“Matt?”

“Severide? It’s Halstead. We can’t bandage him up if he keeps talking to you, sorry.”

“Nah, it’s fine. You keep him right where he is, you hear me? I’m on my way.”

“It’s not like I’d let him leave with the way he’s presenting.”

Kelly closed his eyes for a second, put his phone on speaker and then started the engine.

“That bad?”

“I’ve seen worse.”

“That’s not very reassuring.”

He had to wait a long second for an answer.

“Just get here.”


	28. Update :)

Hi everyone!

Just a quick update on the missing chapters:

I had my baby boy last Wednesday \o/

He is perfect and I enjoy every minute with him. Unfortunately, that also means that I'm not willing to (or even able to) spend my time writing right now. I hope you understand!

I will type out the last few chapters of this eventually, I promise. Just bear with me, my husband and our new family life :)


	29. Beaten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, hello there, it's been a while :D  
I promised you, I'd write those last chapters and today to get three of them \o/  
First of all though, thank you so so much for all of your well-wishes!!   
My baby is five months old tomorrow and I finally have some time to spare (which is mostly used for university) but I just had to get these out.   
If anyone of you is fluent in German, I have started a blog (no fanfiction, though) about life as a mum, all the worries and hapy moments that come with a baby. I'd love for you to check it out, if you'd like!  
www.wunderweile.de  
Right, enough of me rambling!  
Enjoy three chapters back to back hurting our poor Casey :)

“What the hell happened?” Kelly couldn’t quite believe his eyes. Last time he had seen Matt, there definitely hadn’t been bruises on his face.

“Don’t ask,” Matt mumbled, grimacing as he tried to shoulder his way past his friend.

“Well, I am asking.”

Kelly stood his ground and pulled at the hem of Matt’s shirt, who was quick to push his hand away. The damage had been done, though, Kelly had seen the bruises covering his lower back and right side.

“Jesus, Case.”

“It’s fine.”

Kelly shook his head and pushed Matt to sit down on one of the benches of the locker room.

Whatever he had gotten into, it wasn’t fine. Couldn’t there be just one week he didn’t need to worry about Matt? Just one? That wasn’t asking too much, was it?

“This is definitely _not _fine! What happened?”

Matt sighed and carefully placed his hand onto the bruise on his side. Kelly guessed he was dropping all pretence now. It had to hurt, judging by the size and colouring.

“I went on a run last night. A couple of punks decided they could use some money,” Matt muttered, eyes averted.

“You got mugged? By a couple of kids?”

“It was more like five or six. But yeah, wallet’s gone and so is my phone.”

Kelly sighed and sat down next to his friend.

“You’ve got real shitty luck, you know that?”

Matt huffed out a laugh before grimacing again.

“Yeah, you’re telling me.”


	30. Numb

It was probably the ice-cold water making his body go numb. It could be the panic as well, he supposed.

His day had started off so well. He’d enjoyed a really great breakfast in one of his favourite diners just down the street and then walked back home in the almost warm sunshine of the early spring. It had been fantastic. It was the first time in almost a year that he had taken a shift off just to get some time for himself. The last months had been turbulent and he’d been looking forward to a day of self-care, without any emergencies nagging at him.

Now he was in water that was way too cold, his clothes were constantly pulling him down and Matt wasn’t sure how long he could keep treading water like this, grabbing at the ice in front of him.

Finally, in the far distance, he could hear sirens.

Judging by where he was, it was probably Kelly who would pull him out. Fantastic.

Matt had just wanted a day off.

As the sirens got closer, the movement of Matt’s legs got more uncoordinated and erratic, his breathing heavy.

They had to hurry. He wasn’t sure how long he could keep treading water.

“Fire department, call out!”

Yep, that definitely was Kelly.

“Sev!”

Hopefully that was as loud as it seemed to him. He didn’t have the energy to call out a second time.

“Matt?!”

That was barely concealed panic in Kelly’s voice.

Matt saw a silhouette that could be his best friend’s break through the thin line of trees separating the lake from the street.

“Matt, hold on!”

He tried his best, he really did, but the cold was getting to him. Matt thought he lasted a couple more seconds before Kelly’s frantic shouts faded away.

Part of him wondered how Matt even wound up in the lake, never mind why he even got _on _it. He was a firefighter; he should know better. Maybe he had a good reason, who knew. Another part of Kelly was worried sick. Most of him, though, was concentrated solely on getting Matt out. He’d seen his friend lose consciousness maybe five seconds ago and now he was on his belly, slowly making his way towards the broken ice. Distributing weight was extremely important right now. One ounce too much and the ice would crack further. Six feet left.

Matt’s head was still over water, thank God. His hair was wet, flat against his forehead, his blue-tinged lips in stark contrast to his red cheeks.

“Matt!”

Still no reaction.

Kelly cursed and then started to carefully manoeuvre Matt out of the ice and onto the harness next to him. He could hear the ice groaning beneath their weight.

“All right, pull us out!” Kelly shouted over his shoulder, one hand on Matt’s neck.

Relief flooded through him and he felt his head bow for just a moment.

“Matt! Time to wake up!”

Kelly had opened his friend’s jacket and was now rubbing his knuckles over his sternum.

After a few seconds, Matt’s eyes fluttered.

“That’s it. You’re all right, I got you,” Kelly muttered and patted Matt’s chest.

Jesus. What a day.

“I’m still cold.”

Kelly rolled his eyes.

“Well, you did almost freeze to death a couple of hours ago. You can be glad they let you leave.”

He watched Matt nod absentmindedly and unlocked the door of their apartment.

“I’ll wait with the questions and lecture until tomorrow when you’re not shaking anymore.”

Matt grimaced. “Right.”

Kelly huffed a laugh and beelined for the kettle.

“You change into comfortable clothes, I’ll boil water.”

“And then?”

“We grab all of Stella’s blankets and watch the game I recorded.”

Matt’s eyebrows climbed up into his hairline.

“You’ll _snuggle _with me under a mountain of blankets after you made me tea?”

“I never used the word _snuggle_.”

“But you implied it,” Matt snickered.

Kelly just shrugged. “Whatever.”

He filled the kettle and turned in time to see Matt making his way towards his room, whole body shuddering. He could have died today.

“Seriously, Case, you need a hot water bottle or something on top of the tea? You’re still shaking like a leaf.”

Matt’s head poked out of the door, his bare chest quickly covered with a CFD sweater.

Not quick enough for Kelly not to notice the goose bumps.

“You know, what? Never mind. You’re getting one anyway.”


	31. Recovery

“Recovery will be about four months after surgery.”

Matt’s face fell. Four months. On crutches for most of them.

Surgery was only in two and a half weeks, until then he basically couldn’t do anything by himself.

“Case? Do you need help?”

“No!”

Kelly waited a few more seconds, a few more curses.

“You sure?”

“I can shower by myself!”

“You can barely stand, Casey.”

Nothing for a few breaths.

“Listen, no sense in making your knee worse than it already is, right?”

The bathroom door opened a smidge.

“We will never talk about this.”

He woke up to groaning – and not the fun kind.

Kelly’s heart started racing and he was out of bed in in front of Matt’s door before he was fully awake.

“Case?”

He pushed to door open. Matt’s silhouette illuminated by the moonlight, his body curled almost into fetal position. Kelly could’ve sworn he saw tear tracks glistening on his friend’s face.

“Matt?”

Two more steps and he was crouching next to the bed. One glance into Matt’s face told him everything he needed to know.

“Where are your pain meds?”

“Surgery went well. We were able to repair the damage.”

Kelly breathed a sigh of relief.

“Will he be able to work as a firefighter again?”

“He should be if he heals well.”

“Thank God.”

“Breathe, Matt.”

He held the emesis basin a bit closer to Matt’s chin and rang for the nurse again.

How he hated post-anaesthesia-Matt.

“Good job, Mr. Casey.”

Matt clenched his teeth and made another step, most of his weight held up by crutches.

“It will get easier over time, trust me.”

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and another step.

“Thank God you’re back home, Casey. It felt like I was living alone with Kelly,” Kidd grinned at him.

Matt raised an eyebrow at her.

“Shouldn’t that be something positive?”

“You do know Kelly, don’t you?”

Matt snickered and slowly made his way over to the couch.

“Right, your stuff’s back in your room, buddy,” Kelly said, coming back into the living room.

“Thanks.”

“Good to have you back.”

“So, only one crutch now, huh?” Herrmann asked, sitting comfortably in one of the chairs in the common room.

“Yep,” Casey patted his crutch like an old friend. “I hope I’ll be rid of this thing in the next couple of weeks.”

Herrmann nodded at him. “Yeah, I’m sure. Firehouse’s getting boring without you around, Captain.”

Before Matt could answer, the alarm sounded and Herrmann shot an apologetic glance in his direction.

“Sorry, Casey.”

“I know you’re going stir crazy, Casey.”

Matt grinned, he would take a desk job over sitting at home any time.

“You sure, Chief?”

Boden nodded at him, hands on his hips.

“Back next shift?”

Matt grinned even wider, “Hell, yeah.”

“Hey! Casey! Back on truck, huh?”

“Was about time,” Matt answered, finally back on shift – and away from the desk in front of Boden’s office.

“Took you long enough,” Mouch muttered good-heartedly.

“Well, I think I’ll be starting with some drills.”

Mouch just groaned.


End file.
